In 1991, Jerry Krause brought in Croatian superstar Toni Kukoc to play for the Chicago Bulls. It was a huge move, but, one that the rest of the Bulls roster wasn’t too happy about. In fact, as revealed in Sam Smith’s book, The Jordan Rules, Michael Jordan and his teammates weren’t too happy that Krause was ready to pay Kukoc millions. And, even though the Bulls were paying him almost a whole $1,000,000 less than their European competitors, it did not sit well with the players who slogged, and won titles for the team and were still underpaid.
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Players like Scottie Pippen for example, were severely underpaid. Pippen had signed a seven-year contract worth $19.5 million back in 1991. While it was a sizeable contract, it did not reflect his performances on the court. If anything, his skills and abilities far outweighed the nearly $2.7 million he was getting paid annually. And, with talks of Kukoc, a rookie, earning millions, the locker room wasn’t exactly pleased.
Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were not happy about Toni Kukoc getting paid millions of dollars
Toni Kukoc was drafted by the Chicago Bulls back in 1990. However, due to the rules regarding foreign players, he was only allowed to play for the Bulls from 1993 onwards. He had a great career in Chicago, but it was one that started off rather poorly.
After being hyped up by Jerry Krause as the next big thing, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls didn’t take too kindly to having Kukoc on the roster. To make matters worse, Kukoc was being paid despite not having made a single appearance for the Bulls. Something that didn’t sit well with Scottie Pippen, who was making almost the same amount of money as Toni.
It wasn’t Kukoc’s fault, but that didn’t matter to the Bulls roster. And, even though he was getting paid close to $1,000,000 less than what he could have made playing in Europe, MJ and his teammates had reservations about the Croatian. Jordan even went so far as to say he did not expect much from the forward.
“The Bulls had told Kukoc that even though they were offering him $1 million less than a team in Europe, he’d easily make that up in endorsement money. Jordan had become less and less cooperative with the team about promotions in recent years, so they decided to let him worry about himself; Kukoc would be “their” player. Jordan’s reservations about Kukoc weren’t limited to marketing strategies. He would tell friends he didn’t expect Kukoc to be a star in the NBA anyway. ‘Wait until he gets an elbow in the face from Laimbeer.'”
On this day in 1996: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Toni Kukoc became the first trio to score 30 or more points in a single-game in Bulls history to beat the Lakers 🙌 pic.twitter.com/Rl7FYGc1y1
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) December 17, 2018
However, Jordan was in no mood to wait and see Toni Kukoc enter the NBA in three years. So, he and Scottie Pippen took matters into their own hands when they faced off against Kukoc at the 1992 Olympics.
Jordan and Pippen sent Jerry Krause a message by taking down Toni Kukoc at the 1992 Olympics
After seeing all the hype surrounding Toni Kukoc, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen decided to send a message to Jerry Krause at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. So, they did just that when they faced off against Kukoc and Croatia. MJ and Scottie made it clear to the rest of the Dream Team, that only they were allowed to guard him.
What followed, was a massacre, as Jordan and Pippen held Kukoc to just four points. They sent a strong and clear message with their performance. One that left Jerry Krause red-faced.
